1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a personal video recorder and, more particularly, to a remote reservation recording control system which can record a reservation for a broadcast program in the personal video recorder and a method thereof.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, a personal video recorder (PVR) connected to a digital television can record programs broadcast from one or several different broadcasting stations to an inner hard disk for up to a maximum number of hours, such as 40, from which a viewer can then make viewing selections.
The PVR is a digital recorder for recording broadcast programs to the hard disk, and replaying, that is different from a video cassette recorder which stores an image signal to a magnetic tape. Instead, the PVR is a recorder having a predetermined amount of storage time for recording television broadcast programs according to such capacity through a hard disk drive mounted in the PVR set-top box or a television body.
The PVR is similar to the conventional VCR in that broadcast programs received from the broadcasting stations are stored and the stored broadcast programs are watched by a viewer. However, the PVR is different from the conventional VCR in that the broadcast programs are recorded in the hard disk and replayed by a file replaying method such as that of a computer, with a central processing unit (CPU) for replaying, an operating system, a memory chip for storing software, and a large capacity hard disk mounted therein. That is, the PVR is composed of software for storing and replaying broadcast programs for television, a modem, and a hard drive that converts the television broadcast programs into digital signals to be stored in the hard disk and replayed. The user can also record a reservation for a desired broadcast program while watching a catalog of available broadcasts.
However, the conventional PVR can record reservations for the broadcast programs only at the place where the PVR is installed, so that the user cannot perform the reservation recording process outside the limited area of that place and time spent there.